DIA Connections – Details, episodes & analysis

This episode of DIA Connections features highlights from Season Four. Catch up on this season's best moments with an American pilot who landed his plane safely after a mid-air collision with a Chinese fighter jet, a cosmochemistry professor who led NASA’s mission to an asteroid, a DIA analyst turned screenwriter, the speechwriter behind President Reagan’s challenge to “tear down this wall,” and the author of “The Monuments Men,” a book about the greatest treasure hunt in history. *Nothing in this podcast should be construed to be an endorsement by the DIA or the U.S. government of any particular company, product or service.

Wouldn’t it be unbelievable if a spaceship could land on an asteroid, collect rocks that could reveal the secrets of life’s origins, and then return to Earth? Well, believe it, because it already happened! On this episode, a conversation with Dante Lauretta, leader of NASA’s expedition to the most dangerous rock in our solar system. You’ll also hear from the chief of DIA’s Space and Counterspace office about securing the nation’s vital interests in space -- both today and tomorrow. Finally, we go back to the future with The Jetsons, the classic cartoon that was a century ahead of its time. *Nothing in this podcast should be construed to be an endorsement by the DIA or the U.S. government of any particular company, product or service.

Merryl Goldberg was followed by the KGB...interrogated by the KGB...even arrested by the KGB.  Just another spy that got caught, right? Well, not exactly. On this episode of DIA Connections, we follow the inspirational story of Merryl Goldberg, a saxophonist from Boston who in 1985 volunteered to go behind the iron curtain into the Soviet Union to help Jews seeking freedom. Hear how she hoodwinked the KGB by hiding coded information in her sheet music, and how she attracted worldwide attention for the plight of Soviet Jews.   *Nothing in this podcast should be construed to be an endorsement by the DIA or the US Government of any particular company, product, or service.

Throughout his country's invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly denied his forces were targeting civilians. The world saw the truth for itself in a shocking image taken by photojournalist Lynsey Addario, which offered irrefutable proof of Russia’s tactics. On this episode of DIA Connections, our conversation with Addario includes her chilling account behind the historically important photograph she took at a bridge in Ukraine used as a civilian evacuation route, as well as her continued work in the world’s most dangerous places.

In June 2022, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “Russia is stealing the childhood of our children.” Every victim of war suffers loss, but no one loses as much as children. On this episode of DIA Connections, you’ll hear from a psychologist who treats children suffering from war trauma. We spoke with the director of the War Childhood Museum, the world’s only museum focused exclusively on the impact of children and war. We also visited two brave 15-year-old young ladies who left their home in Ukraine for America after a walk home from a friend's house was interrupted by a Russian missile strike.

In April 1975, South Vietnam was on the verge of collapse. As North Vietnamese forces advanced towards Saigon, orphaned babies adopted by American families needed a way out. President Gerald Ford initiated Operation Babylift, a mass evacuation humanitarian mission that ultimately saved thousands of lives. On this episode of DIA Connections, we examine the Defense Intelligence Agency’s successful rescue mission, despite its tragic start when the first plane leaving Saigon crashed, killing 138 of the 316 on board, including five DIA employees. We spoke with two survivors who shared their emotional stories of that fateful day, the pilot, Col. Dennis “Bud” Traynor and medical crew director Regina Aune. You’ll also hear from two of the babies who were airlifted to safety and as adults have honored their past in very different ways. One writes and sings about his life as an adoptee, the other works for the Agency that helped bring her to America, the DIA.

On this special episode of DIA Connections…a chance to catch up with the best of season two. We spoke with a wide range of guests including the founder of the original Topgun flight school, a former Secretary of State, an award-winning Hollywood movie director, a journalist in Moscow during the Cuban Missile Crisis, an ex-Major League Baseball umpire, a DIA psychic, and a comedian President Reagan sought advice from on dealing with Gorbachev about nuclear disarmament. Listen to highlights from the “Best of Season Two.”

We know this is going to sound strange, but it's true! For more than a decade, the Defense Intelligence Agency - the Nation's primary manager and producer of foreign military intelligence - ran a paranormal program. On this episode of DIA Connections, learn how the Agency used psychics to collect intelligence on foreign targets. Author Annie Jacobsen joins us to discuss the secret history of the U.S. Government's investigation into psychic phenomena and about the paranormal race with the Soviet Union. Then, visit the home of Angela Dellafiora, DIA's award-winning psychic/remote viewer, who describes her visualization process and how she used her third eye to go to places where others couldn't. This one's a real mindbender.

When Tom Cruise landed the role of Maverick in the 1986 box office hit "Top Gun," he probably wasn’t aware of how the Defense Intelligence Agency’s exploitation of captured MIGs played a crucial role in the Navy’s Fighter Weapons School program depicted in the movie. On this episode of DIA Connections, you’ll hear about it in a fascinating conversation with Dan Pedersen, the founder of TOPGUN. We also have a discussion with flight instructor Dave “BIO” Baranek, who not only flew aerial sequences in the film and participated in the editing process, but who also swapped stories off set with Cruise about the need for speed.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. It’s a story about the most powerful person on Earth, and his comedian friend from the Soviet Union, and how they ultimately saved the world from nuclear disaster. Wanna laugh? On this episode of DIA Connections, we explore how the humor of President Ronald Reagan and Yakov Smirnoff may have paved the way for a nuclear arms reduction treaty.